Commuters benefit from new Park and Ride contracts

Release Date:  21-Feb-2007

Commuters in Bristol are to benefit from an improved park and ride service at two of the city's three sites thanks to the award of new five year contracts for the provision of bus services to serve the schemes.

Flights Hallmark have been awarded a contract to provide bus services for the city's Portway Park and Ride by Bristol City Council - and have been awarded a similar deal to deliver services for the city's Long Ashton site by operators Park and Ride Limited, who run the site under an agreement with the city council.

Under the deal, Flights Hallmark will provide a new bus fleet and introduce services from 6.15am - something Bristol's employers have been asking for and which will particularly meet the need of the city's extensive health service sector. As the regional capital, the city is home to a number of hospitals providing specialist services for much of south west England.

Under the new contract, the inbound morning Park and Ride services will run every 15 minutes from 6.15am to 7am - then every 10 minutes during the peak period, from 7am to 9.30am, as currently.

Flights Hallmark, part of the Rotala Group, won the contract for Long Ashton against two other bidders and for Portway against three other competitors. The contracts - worth in the region of £600,000-a-year for each site - were awarded against a range of criteria, including price and quality. The company operate bus contracts in Birmingham, Surrey and Staffordshire and provide airport bus services at Gatwick and Heathrow.

The city's third Park and Ride site, off the A4 Bath Road at Brislington, will continue to be served by First Bus who secured a five contract from the city council last year. First previously provided the services at both Long Ashton and Portway.

The Long Ashton site, off the A370 to the south of the city centre, serves commuters travelling into Bristol from Somerset and beyond, including major urban areas such as Weston Super Mare, Bridgewater and Taunton. It currently delivers some 506,000 passenger journeys a year.

The Portway site, off the A4 near Avonmouth, serves commuters coming to the city from Gloucestershire, the Midlands and Wales and is the city's newest scheme. Use of the site continues to grow and last year topped 235,000 passenger journeys.

Over 91,000 people work in Bristol City Centre and the city serves a travel to work population of 900,000

Councillor Dennis Brown, Bristol's Executive Member for Transport, said: "This new contract will deliver some significant improvements to the services we provide directly and indirectly through these two Park and Ride sites. In particular, we believe that the services from 6.15am will encourage more commuters to leave their car on the edge of the city and complete their journey by bus, reducing congestion and pollution - and their own stress too."

Author:  

Simon Caplan

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